Hello!
In this article I will try to explain, how to use approach “Specification by Example” on real project. What tool and framework You need for this. This example will include part of real automation testing framework (ATF) for testing of Web UI application. ATF is based on Java, JUnit, Maven, Selenium and Concordion.

Ok, so what You need to know to start with thing like this? First of all it’s good to have some practice with Java, JUnit and automation Web UI testing (I mean Selenium). If You know everything of it and if You know what is Page Object pattern – let’s imagine, that You have ready ATF based on Java, Selenium and start with implementing of Concordion into this ATF. This examples shows a real example of creation new item on Atlassian’s Jira test project.

Step 3.

From previous step You see, that out *.html example will be stored in /src/test/specs. So, create in Your project under /src/test folder specs. And create in this folder an empty HTML file. It will be our specification. Put next data into HTML file:

Step 5.

If You did everything correctly – You should be able to clean and install project without problem with using of Maven. After successful test run new report-file will appear in folder /target/specs/

What the benefits of using this approach? The answer is obviously. You have good readable living documentations which are the part of tests. And business logic is represented not only in the code, but also in readable view for non-technical stuff.

A bit later I will post a link to live example with source code of this implementation. If You have any question – just send me e-mail to itarray.net@gmail.com